Who made this

Leave a Light is an independent project, made by one person. It is not a temple, a church or a charity, and no monk, priest or minister is paid to pray here.

Why

Sometimes there is nowhere to take a name. Someone you love has died, or is ill, or is far away, and you want to do something, at any hour, from wherever you are. This is a place to light a candle for them, to sit for a while, and to know that other people, somewhere, saw it.

What it draws on

The monastery is inspired by Buddhist temples across Asia, and the chapel by candle chapels in many traditions. We try to honour them, not to copy the rites of any one temple. The main hall has no statue: as in the earliest Buddhist art, an empty seat beneath the Bodhi tree stands for the Buddha.

We are asking Buddhist teachers from more than one tradition, and a grief chaplain, to look at everything here. If something feels wrong to you, please tell us at hello@leavealight.com. We will listen, and change it.

What you pay for

• Anyone can light one light a day for free. It burns for an hour, and only you see the name.
• A light that carries a name where everyone can see it costs $3 for a day, $9 for nine days, or $18 for 49 days (in the chapel, a month). The price only changes how long it burns. No light is bigger or "stronger" than another.
• Incense, the bells, the koi and sitting are always free.
• Each paid light comes with a dedication card and a page you can share. The page stays after the light has burned out.

If this place changes

If one of our two spaces ever closes, every light still burning there keeps burning for the time it was lit for. It stays on its own page, which you can still open and share, until the last of them has ended. We will not move a candle from the chapel into the Buddhist hall, or a light from the hall into the chapel: each stays where it was lit.